People in the News

• Dr. Robert Rosin, chairman of the historical theology department at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, has accepted a part-time assignment with LCMS World Mission, beginning this summer.

While Rosin, 53, will continue teaching at the seminary half time, he also will serve on a contract basis as the mission board’s theological-education coordinator for Eurasia.  His duties will include teaching and making contact with Lutheran educators and partner-church leaders to determine how LCMS World Mission can assist them in the area of theological education.  

At the seminary, Rosin’s primary focus has been on Reformation studies.  He is a graduate of the St. Louis seminary and holds a doctorate in Renaissance/Reformation history from Stanford University.

Before joining the seminary faculty in 1981, Rosin and his wife, Laine, lived in Germany for three years.  He has taught in a dozen countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

• Voncile D. Stone of Belleville, Ill., joins the staff of the Synod’s Worker Benefit Plans April 16 in the new position of vice president of operations. 

Stone most recently was director of employee benefits, planning and administration for Aurora Foods, Inc., in St. Louis.  Before that, she was director — employee benefits, planning and administration at Jackson Products, Inc., and director — human resources services for Edison Brothers Stores, both also in St. Louis.

Stone is a member of Zion Lutheran Church in Belleville.
• Dr. Jean Garton, a member of the Synod’s Board of Directors, will chair the Declaration Committee for the third World Congress of Families (WCF), which meets March 29-31 in Mexico City. 

Garton’s committee is to prepare a statement for adoption by some 2,000 delegates, who will present it to the governments of the 60 nations they represent.  The theme of WCF III is “The Natural Family and the Future of Nations: Growth, Development and Freedom.”

Garton, former president of Lutherans For Life, also chaired the Declaration Committee for the first world congress in Prague, Czech Republic, in 1996 and spoke on adoption at the second congress, which was in Geneva in 1999.

Another Missouri Synod Lutheran, Jean Heise of Rockford, Ill., also will have a leading role in WCF III.  As special events coordinator for The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, she is responsible for congress arrangements.  Heise also is a voting delegate to this summer’s LCMS convention.

• Dr. Richard Bimler, president of Wheat Ridge Ministries, Itasca, Ill., received the “Outstanding Executive Award” from the Association of Lutheran Development Executives during its annual conference Feb. 27-March 1 in St. Louis.  The award is designed to honor a CEO or president who serves the Lutheran church through deed and example.  Bimler has served as Wheat Ridge president since 1991, is the author of numerous books and materials on youth and team ministries, humor and family life, and is a frequent conference speaker and presenter.
• Dr. Johnnie R. Driessner began work Feb. 1 as executive director of the Concordia University (Portland, Ore.) Foundation.  He succeeds Mark Bauer, who left the university in October to accept another position.

Driessner, who has worked at Concordia, Portland, for the past 20 years, was most recently its chief executive officer.  As executive director of the foundation, he is responsible for all aspects of fund raising for the university.

Posted March 26, 2004

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